I don’t agree with you that a passive pre is the proverbial "straight piece of wire".
I didn’t say it was, but it is closer than any active preamp can get. The only way to get closer is to go direct to poweramp with a source with one that has a digital domain volume control. But this way you have to use the digital domain volume control at or above 75% of full output,. If you don’t you start to what’s called "bit strip" that is loosing resolution from EG: 16bit to 14bit to 12bit. the lower you go below 75% of full volumme
Cheers George

